In this reading journal I will post the contents of and my thoughts on any books I read, regardless of whether or not I liked it or even finished it.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

ESCAPING REALITY

TITLE: ESCAPING REALITY

AUTHOR: LISA RENEE JONES

Pages: 250

Date: 24/07/2013

Grade: 4+

Details: No. 1 The Secret Life of Amy Bensen

Received from Julie Patra Publishing

Through NetGalley

Own / Kindle

The blurb:

Infinite
possibilities….Infinite passion…..Infinite danger….

“His touch spirals through me,
warm and sweet, wicked and hot. I shouldn’t trust him. I shouldn’t tell him my
secrets. But how do I not when he is the reason I breathe? He is what I need.”

At the young age of eighteen, tragedy and
a dark secret force Lara to flee all she has known and loves to start a new
life. Now years later, with a new identity as Amy, she’s finally dared to
believe she is forgotten–even if she cannot forget. But just when she lets down
her guard, the ghosts of her past are quick to punish her, forcing her back on
the run.

On a plane, struggling to face the devastation of losing everything again and
starting over, Amy meets Liam Stone, a darkly entrancing recluse billionaire,
who is also a brilliant, and famous, prodigy architect. A man who knows what he
wants and goes after it. And what he wants is Amy. Refusing to take “no” as an
answer, he sweeps her into a passionate affair, pushing her to her erotic
limits. He wants to possess her. He makes her want to be possessed. Liam
demands everything from her, accepting nothing less. But what if she is too
devastated by tragedy to know when he wants more than she should give? And what
if there is more to Liam than meets the eyes?

Allow me to start my
review with a confession: this book is marketed as a New Adult title and I’m
not entirely sure what that means. I get Young Adult and I get Adult Fiction
but I can’t quite get my head around this new concept; I couldn’t before I read
this book and I’m not any clearer about it now.

Be that as it is,
and leaving genre issues aside, I did really enjoy this book. Lisa Renee Jones
once again brings us an intriguing story and compelling characters. And she
builds the story up in such a way that it isn’t instantly clear to the reader
what exactly is going on. Why is Amy on the run? What has happened in the past?
And why is Amy still in danger, six years after a rather mysterious but
obviously devastating event destroyed her life?

If Amy has learned
one thing over the past six years it is that she is alone. She can’t trust
anybody because she doesn’t know exactly what or whom she’s running from and
because she realizes that everybody associated with her will be in as much
danger as she is. And while she has, in the past, successfully kept people at
arms length, she finds this is something she can’t do with Liam after she meets
him. With him she feels an instant connection, although that doesn’t stop her
from deflecting his questions and feeding him convenient lies:

“I’m so good at lying. I almost convince myself it’s the truth.”

Liam, a prodigy billionaire architect with a
reputation for being reclusive takes an instant interest in young Amy and seems
determined to stay close to her, despite her best efforts to run away from him.
He appears to be aware that Amy is holding back on him but doesn’t push her to
reveal more than she feels comfortable with while at the same time insisting
that she accepts his help and attention.

For Amy, her attraction to Liam and his interest in
her leads to confusion:

“You’re you, he’d said. Only that’s the whole problem. I’m not me.”

Because the biggest problem Amy faces is that although
she knows she is in danger and suffers from horrendous flashbacks, she isn’t
entirely sure what exactly happened six years ago and has no idea why her life
was hit by disaster:

“This man who knows where he has been and who he is. I know nothing of
me, not even where I have really, truly been and why I am here. Why I exist.”

And while Amy knows that it would be better, safer,
for both of them if she could just stay away from Liam, her attraction to him
and the way her mind and body respond to his attention seem to make this
impossible:

“I am naked before this man but I am so much more. I am exposed,
vulnerable, and somehow I feel protected and safe.”

Liam seems to see, to understand, that Amy is lost,
alone and afraid. He seems to instinctively know what she needs - an escape
from her problems - and he is determined to give it to her:

“The lack of control is control. When you’re hanging on to each moment,
anticipating what comes next, it leaves room for nothing else. That’s what I
want to do for you.”

Liam makes Amy feel things she’s never felt before and
never expected to experience. And while his need to control her and her life is
both scary and overwhelming he also brings her the peace she needs to sleep
without suffering from nightmares and sexual pleasures she didn’t know she
could experience:

Your new territory to me, Liam. I have never met anyone like you. You’re
overbearingly generous and overwhelmingly male, or maybe it’s the reverse.”

Liam seems to be well aware that Amy is at all times
only one step away from disappearing from his life and does what he can to make
sure she doesn’t:

“And baby, I want you, and all I can say is you might be smart to run
before I get any more into you, but please don’t.”

Until Amy overhears something that makes her question
everything she thought she knew about this man, something that makes her take a
radical decision…

This is another one of those books that ends on a
cliff-hanger. And while it completely achieves its intended goal and leaves me
yearning for the rest of the story it also leaves me a bit frustrated. Lisa
Renee Jones writing and stories are more than good enough to make me go back
for more without being “forced” to do so by cliff-hangers. Yes, I completely
get why books end on cliff-hangers but that doesn’t make me like them any
better.

Initially I had one or two questions marks about this
story-line. I just wasn’t convinced that somebody who has been on the run for
six years and has built her life around not trusting anyone and constantly
looking over her shoulder would instantly trust a stranger, like Amy did when
she meets Liam. I also felt that all the mysteries surrounding her new life and
the coincidences she suddenly notices would have worried her more. After
finishing the whole book though I’ve come to accept that after six years in the
dark Amy has probably reached the point where she needs to change her life,
take control of it, and Liam just happens to be the trigger. And once I
accepted that, the whole story made perfect sense.

Lisa Renee Jones has given us a story that delivers on
several levels. This is one hot love story as well as a compelling mystery. Add
to that some fascinating characters and lots of tension and you have yourself a
book that is almost impossible to put down.

So, cliff-hanger not withstanding, or thanks to a very
gripping cliff-hanger – who knows – I will be trying to get my hands on
“Infinite Possibilities” as soon as it becomes available. I’m looking forward
to finding out exactly what has happened in Amy’s past and why, and can’t wait
to discover exactly what is going on with Liam. It appears that this sequel is
planned for October and that date can’t come soon enough. Taking into account
all the questions that need answering, I’ve got a feeling “Infinite
Possibilities” is going to be even more exciting than this book was.

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About Me

My name is Marleen. I'm Dutch but have been living in Ireland for well over 15 years now. I have a passion and love for reading and books. Since early 2008 I have been lucky enough to have been working part time in the library in Bailieborough, Co. Cavan where among other things I run the library reading group.
I will read almost anything that has words in it, and post my thoughts on everything I read in this blog:

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In this blog I write my thoughts on every book I read. Some I will have brought home from the library, some will have been bought while others will have been sent to me for review. I do not get paid for reading and reviewing any books and all opinions are mine and mine alone. Whether a book was borrowed, bought or received will be indicated at the top of every review.

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